Chapter 1 -
Group work (I still haven't fully decided if this should be one word or two) should not be seen as simply putting students in groups to complete their everyday classroom activities. It involves strategic grouping, delegation of authority to the student, and a cognitively demanding task. Students should be encouraged to make mistakes and, through their exploration, they will come to rely on each group member in order to be successful in completing their task. I think all too often we, as teachers, want to immediately correct mistakes our students are making. This is a great disservice to their development of problem solving skills.
Chapter 2 -
Effectively designed collaborative work has a number of intellectual and social benefits. Group exploration involves active participation in which students receive immediate feedback about their understanding, or lack thereof, about a given topic. It encourages students to problem solve and persevere through uncertainty. Socially, group interaction through subject specific content allows students to "perceive underlying similarities across racial lines." Most group tasks are designed around a central, cognitively demanding problem. I truly believe this is how education should be designed. Life always presents us with a problem, not the answers. The group work methodology recognizes that "rote memorization is insufficient for the challenges of modern social problems and modern technology."
Chapter 3 -
There are a variety of different status factors that can play out when students work in groups. Students with strong academic or social performance often have high status amongst their friends. There is a self-fulfilling prophecy that plays out because these students often end up leading student work in groups and, consequently, are looked at as having the most positive contribution to the group (reinforcing their status). This can have damaging effects in widening the education gap, reinforcing stereotypes that students have, and preventing all students from engaging in the curriculum. If one of the reasons we are using group work is to help students break down these stereotypes, we must be extremely careful in planning group work wisely.
**I am really interested in this book and am eager to find out how teachers can avoid some of these harmful side effects through intentional design and effectively teaching students HOW to work in groups.
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I've certainly seen it spelled both ways, one word more common, although despised by "spell check" everywhere. I appreciate the care with which you are summarizing the content. I think a lot can be learned from this book about how to design and manage groupwork. It will take lots of practice, and I think collaboration with a peer--time to talk & share ideas...
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